ST. CROIX — The Virgin Islands Board of Elections voted today to modify its post-election audit procedures for the upcoming Democratic primary, approved a process for expanding the audit if discrepancies are found, and directed the development of a formal audit policy for future elections.
Board members, who gathered for the meeting in the Public Services Commission offices in both districts due to early voting taking place at the Elections System, said the discussion stemmed in part from the discovery that the territory’s previous written audit policy could not be located. Board member Kareem Francis told the board he had drafted a framework for a new policy after learning the existing document was unavailable.
After discussing election audit best practices used in other jurisdictions, the board voted to conduct a tabulation audit of voting machines used during early voting and the August 1 Democratic primary.
Under the approved procedure, board members who are not candidates for reelection will randomly select one voting machine from each district used during early voting and one machine from each district used on Election Day. Election officials will compare the original machine totals with a hand count of every contest on the ballots from those machines before retabulating the ballots using a different voting machine that was not used during the election.
Francis, who introduced the motion, said the audit is intended to strengthen public confidence in the Elections System.
“I believe an audit policy goes a long way in building trust in the various machines that we use,” Francis said after the meeting, adding that the process would be open to the public. “They can trust that the machines are working as intended.”
Francis said the adopted procedure combines a traditional hand count with electronic retabulation to verify the accuracy of the voting equipment.
“What we’ve done is essentially combine the two,” he said. “We’re going to do that hand count ... I think it’ll show that these devices can accurately tabulate those results.”
An amendment to expand the selection to one machine from every voting center failed to receive a second. Another amendment offered by Harriet Mercer to require an audit of every voting machine used in the election was ruled out of order because it conflicted with the pending motion. After the original motion was approved, Mercer again moved to audit every voting machine, arguing it would increase public confidence, but the proposal failed for lack of a second.
The audit procedure was approved on an 8-1 vote, with two members abstaining and two absent. The board members who approved the motion were Francis and Franz Christian Jr., Lydia Hendricks, Cornelius JnBaptiste, Shikima Jones, Barbara LaRonde, Cleopatra Peter, and Raymond Williams, board chair. Mercer voted against the motion. Atanya Springette and Lilliana Belardo de O’Neal abstained. Chaneel Callwood and Nathan Fletcher were absent.
The board also agreed that the audit will begin August 6, five days after the Democratic primary, after members rejected a proposal to conduct it within 30 days.
Francis said he would have preferred conducting the audit on election night but supported the board’s compromise.
“The quicker we can get it done, I think the more comfortable people will be with the results,” he said. “But because these machines are sealed, they’re not going to be tampered. They’re locked and secured. I’m comfortable with what we agreed to with that five-day turnaround for completing that first step in the audit, and then, if needed, we do a full audit if there are any discrepancies found.”
If the August 6 audit identifies discrepancies, the board voted to require that an audit of the entire election begin within the following 10 days. The start of that process will be at the discretion of the board chair. Williams also said the audit process will be livestreamed.
The board further agreed to have Williams oversee the creation of a formal election audit policy for future elections. Rather than creating a separate committee, members voted to leave development of the policy to the chair’s discretion.
In other business, Williams announced that attorney Mally Rutherford, of McChain Hamm & Associates, has been assigned to represent him and Supervisor of Elections Caroline Fawkes in pending litigation.
The board also announced that Epiphane Joseph has been appointed to replace former board member Michael Joseph. The board discussed that the new member must still be sworn in by a Superior Court judge before taking his seat.
